Their trial followed the conviction of a third garda who had subjected the teen to “degrading treatment” by pouring cups of water down his trousers
Gardai Hugh O’Connor and Patrick Nally were cleared of the charges after a judge ruled the search was lawful and the force they used in restraining the 17-year-old was reasonable.
Their trial followed the conviction of a third garda who had subjected the teen to “degrading treatment” by pouring cups of water down his trousers.
Garda Patrick Nally
Judge John Hughes said “all it takes is one bad apple to spoil the barrel” and while Gardai O’Connor and Nally were not guilty of any offence, they “should have reported their so-called colleague to the authorities.”
The two gardai, from the drug unit at Dublin’s Store Street station, had pleaded not guilty at Dublin District Court to assault causing harm to the teenager and falsely imprisoning him at Granby Place on January 9, 2023.
The third garda, who drove the patrol car, was not before the court, having previously been convicted, with a sentence under appeal.
The complainant said he was “minding his own business” and walking from the Rotunda on an errand for his girlfriend who was in labour when the garda car pulled up.
He told them he “didn’t have time for this” and walked on. The gardai smelled cannabis, followed him, and the driver and Gda O’Connor got out to search him.
The driver took the teenager’s phone and dropped it in a puddle before bending his Leap card and bank cards in half. A grinder was also found which the driver threw into the car. Gda Nally, still in the car, examined the grinder and finding nothing evidential, threw it aside, but it landed in a puddle.
Gda O’Connor looked inside the teenager’s tracksuit bottoms and underwear. He said he did not know the complainant was a minor at the time as he had failed to give them his birth date.
As Gda O’Connor returned to the car with the driver, he saw the youth picking up what he thought was a contraband item. He went back, grabbed him and put him in a “goose neck hold” before being joined by Gda Nally who used a “straight arm pressure point” technique to help restrain him.
The youth denied he was obstructing the gardai and maintained they were “rough” and he was hurt. The prosecution said the teen suffered soft tissue injuries from the restraint.
While the two gardai held him, the driver got back out, filled a cup with water from the puddle and poured onto the seat of the teen’s tracksuit bottoms, twice.
Garda Hugh O’Connor
“I don’t believe I behaved inappropriately,” Gda O’Connor said of his own actions. “I believe what I was doing was required. I believe it was a genuine search with genuine grounds and the amount of force was appropriate at the time.”
He did not see the first time the driver poured water on the teen but saw the second. It was inappropriate but he did not challenge him or report it and “in hindsight I should have.”
Gda Nally also denied using excessive force, saying “It was proportionate to the level of resistance that we were getting.”
He did not see the driver pouring water on the teen.
“I wouldn’t condone that type of behaviour at all,” he said.
Neither of the gardai made any report of the search.
The judge said “urgency is often required” in a search and he believed the gardai used reasonable force in the “dynamic circumstances” they were in.
The case before him was not about the driver’s behaviour, which was “reprehensible,” he said. The driver had humiliated the teenager with “degrading treatment” that showed “total disregard for his human rights.”
“All it takes is one bad apple to spoil the barrel,” Judge Hughes said. “Gardai Nally and O’Connor should have reported their so-called colleague to the authorities. Had they done so, they might not have been before the court at all.”
He dismissed the charges.